President John Remias called the regular meeting of the Residents’ Council [the Council] to order at 3:00 pm on Tuesday June 4, 2024. 112 people were in attendance including Residents’ Council members minus two. Additional staff members included Patti Santoni, Philanthropy Director; Don Grove, Executive Director; Ken Zahn, Dining Services Director: Jayson Spivey, General Services Director; Karen Leighton, Resident Life Director, and Resident Board of Directors members Pat Kasuda.

Moment of Silence
The Council observed a moment of silence for those who have passed away.

Previously distributed minutes of the May 7 meeting of the Residents’ Council meeting were approved as presented.

Mission Moment
Stephanie Leddy and Connie Andrews each wrote letters praising the many people responsible for the glorious daffodils that graced so many areas of Charlestown during the spring.

Stephanie expressed gratitude for the wonderful work of the Grounds staff, the terrace gardeners and to all the residents who planted the “infinite variety of daffodils” on campus. She explained that in February; while taking the shortcut to Charlestown Square, I turned the corner and was surprised by the first daffodils greeting me from their sheltered spots around the terraces. I had to stop to enjoy them and take pictures to send to my friends and family farther north. In the woods below the Herbert’s Run bridge, various daffodil groupings began to appear each time I looked down while crossing. They made me smile and wonder “How did you get there? In March, daffodils were everywhere! They spilled out of terrace gardens, danced along the edges of the walkways and cascaded down the hill on Erickson Way. A vision of shades of yellow.” Stephanie’s final words to the planters: “Thank you all for your efforts and for making my heart sing this spring!”

Connie added her thanks to both present and former residents “for adding so much beauty to Charlestown. Next year we will have hundreds of new daffodils to admire again”.

My only addition is to thank Nature for its contribution. We can’t do it without you.

Thank you, Stephanie and Connie, for noticing and sharing your story. Elaine concludes “They are genuinely great examples of the Charlestown lifestyle: helpful, warm, compassionate, friendly, and willing to help at a moment’s notice. We are a community who cares and can be depended on to support each other. Thank you all!

Executive Team Reports

John Remias, President
I want to first give a SHOUT OUT to a couple of ladies that have given long years of service to us.

The first recognition is of a lady that took over the lead of the Mission Moments program FOURTEEN years ago, incidentally a program that Pat Kasuda initiated. This lady has been a resident of Charlestown for TWENTY-ONE years. Her mission has been to personally make Charlestown a better place to live one day at a time. She has succeeded in SO many ways by just being herself.

Now please join me in a resounding round of applause for our beloved Phyl Lansing. Thank you, Phyl.

Phyl has now been able to recruit someone to take over the reins of the Mission Moments program. Please join me in recognizing Marianne Reichelt as the new leader of this program. This is one dynamic lady that has only recently come to Charlestown and is already stepping up to the plate. Thank you, Marianne.

My second recognition is of a lady that has lived here for 11 years and has also given much to our community in so many ways. But the way I want to recognize her is for her leadership of the Friendly Visitors program which she has led for about the last eight years. She has now decided to step down from that job of leading this vital program. She was recently given a surprise THANK YOU party by the many past and present Friendly Visitors that have been part of the program and the Community Resources department. Ellie DiPietro is a humble, gentle lady that has given so much to us. Ellie is not able to join us today, but I do want us to give her a round of applause for what she has done. Thank you, Ellie.

It is also my pleasure to announce that Mimi O’Donnell is now taking over the Friendly Visitors program for Ellie. Thank you, Mimi.

On a totally different subject, I would like to say a few words about the upcoming State and National Election environment in our nation and in our community. I know this is early to be talking about this election cycle, but maybe it’s not too soon to say a few words about our potential actions, right here in our community, as related to our political leanings in the next few months. One of Charlestown’s missions is to be a place of harmonious living. Quoting from our 2024 Charlestown Resident Handbook, “All residents have a right to pursue political interests OR NOT to be involved in political activity”. After that, on Page 22 of the Handbook, there are specific guidelines to be followed within the umbrella of harmonious living here. I would ask that we respect the other person’s viewpoint as they may or may not display it, as much of a challenge as this might be. When I was asked to initiate the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging program here, one of my missions was to ‘reduce the temperature’ in the community at that time. I am now asking all of us to keep the emotional political temperature here at an acceptable level. Remember, harmonious living is our goal. It will take each one of us to make that happen.

Diana Dunaway, Treasurer

Balance – April 30, 2024                                 $7,050.75

Expenses                                                         $ 1,075.75

Balance – May 31, 2024                                 $5,974.96

 

April 2024 Expenses Details

Communications         $    381.48 – Website Security

Nominations               $    689.00 – Election Posters

Health Services           $        5.31 – Supplies for RX disposal

Committee Reports

Benevolent Care, Carol Kefford
The committee did not meet in May, but Patti Santoni reported the following updates:

Benevolent Care has received through April

• Treasure Sale and Donations $152,476
• Realized Planned Gifts $ 73,309

Planning is underway for Benevolent Care Month (September)

• The next Treat of the Quarter will be distributed Tuesday (June 11) – if you are not currently receiving treats for supporting Benevolent Care, please contact Philanthropy to sign up.
• The Next Treasure Sale is July 25-27.
• The next GET THE SCOOP event will be held on Friday, August 29 in the Gallery – sign up through Philanthropy
• Next BCF Committee meeting is June 26 at 2pm in CTS 116.  Looking for some new members so please stop by to learn about the committee and what we do!

Communications, David Elder and Larry Taylor, Co-chairs

• Xfinity/Comcast – Two new Channels Listings were sent to administration and posted to MyErickson under Resident Resources and TV and Videos sections. They are also in CCI-Charlestown.org under the Television Box or under Resident-activities/tv-books-movies/TV. In this same area they are both linked to MyErickson back to TV and Videos.  One is titled Xfinity ComcastThe Charlestown Comcast bulk service contract provides basic HD television in the apartments. Address your concerns to General Services. See more information about apartment television and television connections. READ MORE Bulk Channel TV Line Up which is the basic bulk cable (205 Channels), and the other is Xfinity ULTIMATE TV Channel Line Up (it includes MASN, and more Sports and HD channels (116 more Channels) this is for those who elected to upgrade.  Both can be viewed, downloaded, and printed.

• Channel 972 – Closed Captioning – Due to device issues between Comcast and 972, 972 has no controls on how Captioning is shown on your TV’s. This also includes significant lag time of this Captioning.

• Next Tech Bar – The Next Tech Bar is tentative site for August. We are waiting to hear back from Myrone Foster in IT about an actual date.

• Shuttle Tracker Display Issues – As you may know, all but one of these Displays has stopped working and have been taken down. Per Home Office IT, they are still trying to come up with a solution for the replacement for these monitors.  Note you can still use your mobile access via your mobile phones.

• Photo/Email project update – This is an ongoing project; we are still trying to get Residents’ photos and Email address info updated. The Committee will be at the Dining Hall’s in July or August and at the Tech Bar.

• CCI-Communications Google Groups – We are looking to rebrand the CCI-Communications Google Groups. Hope has suggested rebranding the CCI-Communications Google Group to a catchier title which would encourage greater Residents participation.  Several titles were suggested, and the committee agreed that a new name would be a clever idea. The Committee is brainstorming these choices.  Once a new name has been chosen and appropriately promoted and shared out with all.

Two additional notes – We cannot express the importance for Residents to visit our own Councils Website at ccicharlestown.org. This website allows you to see what is going on in Charlestown through the eyes of our fellow residents.

Free Electronic Recycling Event on June 5 in CS 10:30 to noon and Short Line Café 1 to 2.

Our next Communications Committee ZOOM Meeting will be on Monday, June 24, via Zoom.

Conservation, Mark Buehlman
We began our May meeting with an update from our Staff Liaison, Michele Fenn. Tomorrow, June 5, there will be a Free Resident & Employee Electronic recycling event. Electronics will be collected from 10:30am – Noon at Charlestown Square and from 1:00pm – 2:30pm at Cross Creek. See the information on MyErickson for details, but most electronic items are accepted.

Marty Tewksbury, who heads our Recycling & Reuse Subcommittee, reported on the recent Nature Fest. It was well attended and, because of a contact made during the event, an exhibitor, Patapsco Heritage Greenway, will be making a future ELLIC presentation.

Our Committee works very closely with the Nature Trail Club. Last year we offered a joint presentation on general erosion and runoff control at Charlestown that was well received. This fall we be making a joint presentation to the Community focusing on erosion and runoff issues specific to the Nature Trail.

There are many recommendations from the Sustainability Working Teams reports that won’t be worked on by other Committees. We also have several suggestions and potential projects generated by monthly Conservation Caucus meetings among the various Erickson Communities. Our focus at the June meeting will be to prioritize those items, choose which ones we will work on, and decide how to best work with the Administration on implementation.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, June 18, 2024, at 2:00pm in Brookside Classroom 1.

Dining, Catherine Stevens and Stephanie Leddy, Co-Chairs
From Ken Zahn: Ken shared an idea to incentivize residents to use the QR codes. If a person uses the QR code and puts his/her name on it, with 10 uses, the name will be placed in a drawing for one of two –Chef dinners for two.

Sunday Buffet

• Ken was present at all locations on the 1^st Sunday checking temperatures and set-ups. He presented some basic facts about the buffet.
• It is possible to make a reservation at 2pm. Restaurants will start breaking down at 2:30.
• Help is available for EMV and rollator users at all restaurants. One restaurant had purple papers where orders could be written down and servers would serve them. This is for EMV and rollator users only.
• Toast is available every Sunday. Other bread items- bagels, English muffins, biscuits will rotate. Also, pancakes, French toast and waffles will rotate. Scrambled eggs and omelets will always be available.
• You are allotted your regular food choices. You may go back to the buffet, but not to bag food to take home for additional breakfasts. “All you can eat” restaurants have the same policy.
• Feedback was very good from the buffets

General

There are new initiatives planned to aid new residents planned by Resident Life and the Dining Committee: Dine together, Dining Buddies, Friendly visitors, move-in- day meals, navigators and welcome tables (dining ambassadors.)

I am chairing the Welcome Tables like Dining Ambassadors in the past. One or 2 hosts will invite 4 new residents to dinner to get to know each other and ask questions. It will begin the end of this month at the Fireside. Those interested in hosting can contact me, Stephanie Leddy or come to the meeting on Monday, June 10 at 2pm in CS216.

My Nutrition info was placed in all cubbies. It can be found on My EricksonMy Erickson is a resident portal. It is provided by Erickson Corporate and is managed by Charlestown staff, mainly Community Resources. See Portal. READ MORE and CCICharlestown

To find on My Erickson- it is the last item on Dining Information

Dietary focus had Ken Zahn and Chef Paul as guests

Next meeting – Monday,  June 17 at 1:30in Br 2—Location Change

Finance, John Yoder
The Finance Committee met on May 28, 2024. Highlights are noted below:

• We welcomed Jill Clippinger as Interim Finance Director. Andrew Buckly was hired into a vacant Financial Analyst position with duties beginning 5/29/2024.
• For the year, operating revenue (operating income less operating expenses) was $79 thousand under budget, due mainly to higher operating expenses, a good share of which were attributable to higher than anticipated costs for wages and contract labor. (But for context, this must be seen against an overall revenue budget of more than $8.5 million.)
• Billed occupancies for May:
  95. IL = 95.2%
  96. CC = 92.3
• YTD settlements: 59 vs 58 releases
• Summaries of final sustainability reports were received. The Finance Committee recommends that high priority be given to these recommendations for 2025 CapEx.
• Seventeen residents received Benevolent Care funds at the end of April 2024.

Finance Committee will not meet in June; Next meeting July 30, 2024, in Brookside classroom #1.

Grounds, Dick Voelkel Chair
The Invasive Plants Crew has removed all the garlic mustard they could find on campus. They have refocused their efforts to other invasives.

Erickson Way buffer fence replacement is complete – and it looks good!

A temporary bridge is planned on Nature Trail for construction equipment during overhead bridge foundation work.

Lake hydro raking meeting will occur in June to plan sediment removal and disposal.

Caton Ridge terrace plantings will be done on a standard plan.

Presently, there is one grounds department employee out sick, and another one being hired.

Next meeting: June 26, 11:00 in Brookside Classroom 1

Health Services, Jean Tribulski and Connie Cooney, Co-Chairs
Our speaker was Janice Serovich on Hot Weather Hydration. Residents are reminded to keep hydrated during the approaching hot weather since many of our organs are dependent on sufficient intake of fluids. An important sign of dehydration is dark colored urine.

Our sub-committees were very busy in the month of May and had much to report.

1. Preserving Independence – Statistics on falls are still needed.
2. Pelczar reported from the CDC reports that flu is abating, COVID is about the same but upper respiratory cases are still high. He reminded residents to be wary of “the wee beasties” (ticks and mosquitoes). Use repellants, preferably with DEET, and check both yourself and pets when coming back inside.
3. The Technology Library is on hold until the various groups for health problems are checked for resources that they are supplying residents.
4. The Parkinsons Group had Dr. Carpenter speak on some typical symptoms that can occur with Parkinsons.
5. The Low Vision Group reported that they have formed a steering committee with assistance from Dr. David Graham.

The Health Services committee submitted a capital budget request to the Finance Committee to lower the soap and towel dispensers in the public bathrooms since they are too high for those in wheelchairs and EMVs.  The request was declined since it was not considered a capital item. The committee requested that the ADA requirements be checked.  Surprisingly, the only mention of sinks was to their height and need for letter sent to the Finance Committee and Department to re-evaluate the request. Another issue for wheelchair and EMV residents is they cannot see into the pans of foods in the cafes. Could they be labeled?

Our next meeting is Tues. June 11 at 11 am in BR 1. Our speaker will be Steveanne Ellis, Head of the Maryland Ombudsman program is scheduled for our June 11 meeting.

Housekeeping, Sebastian Petix
Housekeeping committee met on 5/20/2024. In addition to committee members and Residents’ Council president and vice-president, four members of Erickson management attended including Executive Director Don Grove. Concerns addressed included improving communications with management feedback when work orders are submitted. A list of management hierarchy was requested and received as of this date. Condition of common area cleanliness was noted as a priority. New Carpeting on stairway at Charlestown Square will be installed in June. Whether inspection tours should be open to all residents was discussed. Housekeeping manager Michelle Fenn thought this was impractical. Don Grove expressed interest in exploring the possibility. Other concerns discussed included residents who hang personal artwork outside door areas and inappropriate items on and under shelves.

Next meeting: Monday, June 17, 10:00, Brookside Classroom 1.

Legislative/Political, Paulette Hammond and Art Johnson, Co-Chairs
Joe Carrick presented a summary of the Sustainability Committee’s reports and brief discussion followed.

The committee discussed the CapEx process and received two suggestions, which the committee co-chair submitted.

Co-chair Paulette Hammond is organizing a Legislators’ Meet and Greet session to be held in late June or early July depending on Gallery availability and legislators’ schedules. It appears that this will probably take place in July.

The committee continued its preliminary discussion of plans for interviewing candidates for U.S. Senate and House of Representatives

Next Meeting:  Wednesday, June 12, 10:00 am in Brookside Classroom 1

Maintenance and Engineering, Jerry Donaldson
With respect to old business, there were still four (4) General Services Action Items that require attention before they can be closed. General Services reported that the first of these Action Items, Caton Ridge Renovation, was moving towards an all complete by the end of August. Towards that goal, the backfill, followed shortly by the fence removal and the opening up of the front entrance, is scheduled for completion by the end of June. The final milestones for this project, including moving Physical Therapy back to Caton Ridge, are scheduled to   be completed by the end of August.

The second open Action Item is the replacement of an elevator in Chapel Court. The missing parts have been procured and the elevator is currently out of service while it is being replaced. The replacement is scheduled to be completed by the end of July.

The third open Action Item is directed at the repair of the erosion around the base of one of the support columns supporting the pedestrian traffic between Herbert’s Run and Brookside. General Services had a Contractor meeting recently and the project start date was mutually agreed upon as early August with a completion date targeted for the end of September.

In the area of New Business, General Services briefed our Committee on a Water Intrusion Incident, which occurred on the afternoon of May 17. While we certainly do not like floods in our apartments, this incident can serve as an excellent teaching moment. Later in this program, General Services will provide additional detail on exactly what happened and how we can learn from the incident.

The Signage Sub-Committee met twice in May, on site in both Charlestown Square and Chapel Court. The objective was to determine the signage requirements for Charlestown Square, levels one and two, and Chapel Court, levels one and three. The Sub-Committee will contact the vendor concerning the signs required in both areas. Signs for the Terrace Room intersection and the Arborside corner have not yet been received from the vendor.

With respect to the Courtyard Crossing handrail, General Services reported that the installation has been completed.

During the discussion of New Business issues, Rick Buckingham, Captain of the Facilities Action Team of the Low Vision Development Group, briefed the M&E Committee on some of the challenges and dangers faced by the Low Vision residents in Charlestown. For residents with Low Vision, roughly 1/3 of our population, reading the floor numbers in elevators becomes a challenge because of the lack of contrast in colors between the numbers and the background. In addition, the elevator location is very difficult to read at some elevator locations due to the signs being “washed out” by the bright ceiling lights. Following Mr. Buckingham’s presentation and some lively discussion, General Services accepted an Action Item to review the challenges and dangers faced by the Low Vision population here in Charlestown.

Next meeting is on June 25, 2024, at 2:00 in the General Services Conference Room.

Resident Life, Nancy Fayer and Margaret Vincent, Co-Chairs
DIB Committees

• TAPESTRY is led by Moffitt Churn and Audrey Trapp: The next Tapestry gathering is Monday, June 11, 10-11:30 AM in the Chesapeake Restaurant. The Brookside & Herbert’s Run residents were invited. Tapestry team is working to draft a Tapestry Evaluation Questionnaire.
• Agism/Ableism/Accessibility Committee is led by Ann MacKay who published an article on Reframing Aging in the June Sunburst. She also reports a lower window has been installed in the Refectory construction wall so residents with wheelchairs and EVs can now view the work progress.
• Low Vision Development Team is Led by Moderator David Graham. The DIB subcommittee which supports an underserved group of Charlestown residents whose lives are impacted daily by low vision.

In May, a four-member, four-area Low Vision steering committee was formed in May:

Peggy Reiber working with Communications,

Rick Buckingham – Facilities and environment

David Graham – Program,

Barbara Schubring- Resources.

The next Low Vision Development Team Meeting is June 24 at 1:30 PM CTS216

• Juneteenth event will be held on Tuesday, June 18 at 7 PM. Mr. Bradley Alson, Baltimore’s Black History maven, will present the story 09f Juneteenth at the Central Pratt Library on Tuesday, June 18 at 7 PM. If enough people sign up, a Charlestown vehicle can provide transportation.  To sign up, call the shuttle dispatch at 410 737 8838 EXT 601-8448 and speak with David Schuch.

New Resident Life Welcomer Committees

• Margaret Vincent has created and leads the Welcomer Subcommittee of the RLC. It is a suite of seven separate projects with 10 residents on the “new committee” who call themselves “Welcomers.” Four of the seven projects have to do with dining and food, starting with:
  • Move in day meal – led by Ellsie Kemp. She is planning to have a meal ready for the new resident the day they move into Charlestown.
  • Dine Together program– Designed and led by Marie Skane

It is held the at 5:15 – 6:30 PM on the first Monday of the month, in the Creative Arts Studio, near the Shortline. Its aim is to help new residents meet and get to know each other by sharing an informal meal. 24 people attended the June meal. The next meal will be July 1 at 5:15.

• Pat Dubois and Cathy Stevens are developing Dining Buddies program. They are recruiting resident volunteers to invite and dine with a new resident(s) soon after that person moves into Charlestown. A two-month pilot program will be conducted at the Fireside Restaurant.
• Welcome tables, led by Stephanie Leddy. Please see “Welcome Tables” in Stephanie Leddy’s Dining report.

The three other Welcomer programs are aimed at informing new residents.

• Friendly Visitors – Hats off to Ellie DiPietro who recently retired after leading the successful program for many years. Congratulations Ellie! And thank you. 25 Friendly Visitors throughout the campus deliver a packet of information, about many aspects of life at Charlestown, to the new resident on the day they move in. The Friendly visitor then follows up and makes an appointment to meet with the new resident.
• Council Invitations program Led by Bunny Rogers. Bunny sends a postcard invitation to new residents inviting them to join the Residents Association and to explain the associations’ goals. Margaret Vincent designed a new Invitation postcard currently being used.
• A Navigators program is on hold currently.

Committee Leadership change for the Resident Life Committee: Co-chair Margaret Vincent resigned as co-chair of the Resident Life Committee, effective August 8, to coincide with the election of the new Resident Council 2024 members. Fortunately for us, Margaret will continue as the leader of the Welcomer projects. Please join me in thanking Margaret for designing, organized, and implementing many successful programs for the Resident Council and for the Resident Life committee. She will be        sorely missed.

The Next Resident Life Committee on Wednesday, June 19 at 10 AM in Brookside Classroom 2. Please note the time change so you can attend the Deeper than the Skin DEIB presentation at 2 PM on the 19^th.

Safety and Security, Ed Appel
The committee focused on Cyber Security at our last meeting May 9.  We received a briefing by Chief Information Security Officer, Erickson Senior Living on Cyber Security.  She reported that Erickson Senior Living provides Charlestown IT Systems, including security.  She heads an experienced team that is well-equipped with the necessary tools and training.  They conduct regular systems updates, collect intelligence to prevent and mitigate attacks and watch the servers for signs of intrusions.

All Erickson & Charlestown employees are trained and tested on security using IT systems, which include warnings on all external emails to help identify potential danger.  The CSO’s team collaborates with government and high-tech firms to identify, study, mitigate and prevent security threats from proliferating across networks.  At Charlestown, our IT group headed by Myrone Foster and ably assisted by our Communications Committee and particularly Hope Tillman, present seminars, Tech Bars, Town Hall and other Cyber Security presentations.

Cyber Security tutorials can be found on ccicharlestown.org, along with a new series of Scam articles, starting now, authored by the Safety-Security Committee.

Ed Appel personally observed Security team emergency responses on May 24 and June 1.  A resident who fell in the gym and a resident who fell on the sidewalk outside the St. Charles received outstanding assistance.  The Security officers immediately responded, provided first-aid and arranged for transport by BCFD to the hospital.  Once again, we were reminded to take our pendant or cell phone, to notify Security for others who need help, and to report issues to Security, to help protect everyone.

Our next meeting on Thursday, June 13, 2024,1:00, in CS Classroom 116 will be on the topic: How to make independent living residents with dementia more secure.

Nominations and Elections, Mark Buehlman and Joe Carrick
Good afternoon, I am Mark Buehlman, and along with Joe Carrick, I am Co-Chair of the Residents’ Council Nominating Committee for 2024.

The Committee has been talking to potential candidates since late January, and I am pleased to announce that we have a very strong slate of 13 candidates running this year. The posters and election material will be available on July 1st, and after going over their backgrounds and qualifications, I’m sure you will agree. On behalf of the Committee, I would like to introduce this years’ candidates:

o         Virginia Antevil
o          Lois Eldred
o          Jack Flood
o          Eileen Friedman
o          Bill Jones
o          John Kuntz
o          Richard Lee
o          Charles Robinson
o          Fred Sadler
o          Larry Taylor
o          Rob Vickerman
o          Marty White
o          Jean Williamson

Election Day will be Wednesday, August 7th, outside the restaurant near where you live. The only change from last year is residents in Buildings 1-5 will be voting at a separate table outside the Terrace Restaurant. This is due to the uncertainty of space because of the construction in the historic area.

Update from Don Grove:

Well, I thank you, the Residents’ Council. My message to residents is that I continue to be impressed the Council. Whether it’s meeting with the committees or with John and Joe who are in touch with the issues. I get the rhythm of the emails and things I hear from residents individually, but you, the residents, really should recognize that your Residents’ Council is clearly working for you. I always appreciate that the topics line up as far as what we’re working on. And it’s good to hear a lot of things aligning with the actual plan that we have based on the resident satisfaction survey that you took. It was particularly good to hear Sebastian’s update, because housekeeping and cleaning is something we’re going to be very focused on this year.

I had the opportunity to read the bios of the council candidates and it’s interesting.  We all say that there’s a lot of impressive people you can meet around this campus but, boy, that just read the people’s background and how impressive a group of people we have in this community. So, thank you all for participating. I can look forward to continuing this relationship. I enjoy the partnership that my team has with your team. Thank you.

Well, I wanted to let you know first start update today that I can share there. You recall from last year last month’s town hall meeting the board members joined us for the annual report. The Reverend David Cooney and Richard Grove talked about the long-term plans for the community, and they outlined the plans for financing the projects that are coming. They’re coming up. And the decision they had worked through is that the best decision was, instead of going with investments, is to borrow money towards some of the projects. And so today, we are meeting with the Maryland Health and Higher Education Facilities Authority. And we had a very quick approval for that from the MCCRA folks so that clears the way. We’re going forward with borrowing the money towards the projects. Those projects include some infrastructure things we’re focused on, like the high number of elevators.  We have work to do on boilers and some back of house stuff. Also, it helps us with our historic area repositioning. So, you know obviously the Refrectory work is underway, but we have more areas to come and there’s different phases. And then what really clears the way for us right now is to go forward with our outdoor project. In the coming month I think what we’ll make June’s Town Hall an opportunity to share more about the outdoors and some visuals of what’s worked. Regarding outdoor planning, this approval with finances tells us that we’re going to be in a good setting to move forward with doing the research and with doing a planning and development of the outdoor amenities which are really focused on the garden area on campus.

And while I’ve talked about a couple of times in the past few times in the past that gave people some perspective. I really think you are going to be truly excited about this. And now we truly have the Go ahead. And that’s why I say in June we’ll start to share some visuals to let you know what’s planning. And this is a project that the board has been very clear on, they want to move quickly. So, our hope is that this year we’ll spend the balance of this year planning and setting in our timeline. And then next year we will put shovels in the ground to work on the project out in the front area. The top of the list when I talked about the project, the thing I think is most exciting is accessibility. It comes with this project. It will allow folks in an EMV or Walker to be able to walk around the gardens and go over the softball field. We’re going to have more bocce ball courts. Karen Lake has already speculated on some small concerts maybe we can do out there again. They expanded gardens with some raised gardens that are a little bit easier for folks to access. And again, I can’t highlight enough though the accessibility which we currently do not have there. Meanwhile, we hope to have hydro raking of the pond by September. What folks have asked me about is the Catonsville Rails to Trails (CRT() extension. We still await the proposal to extend their trail behind the campus in which they would supply a new fence on the back border of our campus. They have not come back yet and we’re waiting for their proposal.

I’ll go less into projects because tomorrow at nine o’clock here is the General Services General Services Town Hall update. And so that’s at 9am tomorrow. So hopefully if you have the chance to join us, I’m sure we’ll probably record that and share that on MyErickson 972. But they’ll go through all the different projects going on around campus. I did want to focus what the maintenance and engineering committee mentioned on the plumbing. We’ve gone around with trying to perfect and limit these plumbing incidents around campus. And Jerry pointed to the incident we recently had in May in Chapel Court, and I can express how very proud I am of the team and the way they reacted. The team was there quickly. There were numerous people everywhere. And the way in which the cleanup was done. We met with individual residents. I just got a letter today from one of the residents who just detailed all the feedback and their experience and how she was very appreciative that the team stayed on top of the problem.  We’ve paired resident life and general services together to make sure we are taking care of the individuals, and they know what the next steps are. And we’re having calls behind the scenes to essentially every other day to make sure we know where each resident stands and that situation is if they are displaced from their apartment, we had two individuals in that case were displaced that happened on the fifth floor. We run the drills and first seeing that the team is there quickly is of course important. But the other is we’ve mentioned in the past they have the supplies that they use, so that in the event of a water incident security or maintenance can route the water. They have hoses ready to route the water into a tub or out the window and I have proof that it was used because they ran the hose out the window and the resident on the first floor had her main complaint with the flood was with the daffodils she planted yesterday.

Respectively submitted,
Nancy Meier, Residents’ Council Secretary